Originally posted by Matrix:
my guess is that it would mean that smaller civs will ally with each other, because the big ones are the biggest threads. That way, it's very hard to win a game. I wonder very much how such a game will work out.
(...)
But there it appears that - and I'm talking about games played by very experienced players, and this is also what Woke23 told me - no one will have war. War is the last option to a solution of a problem. If you do declare war to someone, everyone else will declare war to you. And if you ever break an alliance and attack the same turn, or do something else shameful, no one will ever play another diplo game with you again.
That's the idea, Hell-Raiser. Just suppose the diplo game is the real world: when one country starts attacking another country, without reason, you can expect them to react with counter attacks, to help the attacked country. That's why you have to be careful with your military actions, cause they might invoke the wrath of your opponents. IMO a game will be far more realistic than a normal multiplayer game, because there will be a moment when you can distinct several great empires (in our case 6) living peacefully side-by-side....until someone makes a mistake...
The story then becomes very important as well as interesting; imagine this for example:
I have some units protecting my border, near a railroad, that leads to your empire. You decide you want to establish a new trade route between Moscow and London. So your freight travels thousands of kilometres until it reaches my border and meets my protecting units. Of course you'll ask me to move my units, so that you can establish the trade route, but I may decide that I don't want another trade route with you, because I don't trust Russian goods (just a possibility). This
might anger you and it may eventually lead to us engaging into war, because of that event! I might complain to the other forces that I was attacked by you for no reason, but then you point to a photo, taken by one of your orbiting satelites (screenshot!) which shows the situation: a blocked freight and two stuborn defensive units. Then it's up to the others what to do: help you, help me, or do nothing!!
As you see, war actually has a meaning in the diplo game and gains a lot more depth. In this way we'll get the most out of Civ 2 MGE! I hope I cleared things up with this example, Hell-Raiser!
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Note to Matrix: I can't get ICQ to work here at the university at the moment, but fortunately there're other options (like using Opera, but then I'll have to borrow it from a friend). So I'll see if I can install it tomorrow...
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